More Praise for This Book “Evolution and growth is always on the mind of a leader, and this book provides practical advice on how to adjust and improve in the midst of change.” —Kurt Tunnell Managing Partner, Bricker & Eckler “Throughout my career, I’ve managed the unexpected Go With It gives anyone great ideas to improvise and be effective.” —Dan Creekmur President, Columbia Gas of Ohio, a NiSource Company “The speed of innovation is reliant on the people who drive change This book allows any team to up their game, collaborate radically, and improvise That means faster to market with better outcomes!” —Ben Verwer Vice President, Strategic Initiatives, BD Diagnostics “Real life is all improv! Go With It outlines usable skills that allow professionals to engage in behaviors that increase success, and get us all comfortable with discomfort.” —LaChandra Baker President, Columbus Chapter, International Association of Business Communicators “This practical little book offers fresh and powerful insights into how anyone can learn to make themselves more creative and to help others by leading them to much more creative and superior outcomes I thoroughly enjoyed reading it!” —Alan Robinson Co-Author, Ideas Are Free and Corporate Creativity © 2017 ASTD DBA the Association for Talent Development (ATD) All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 20 19 18 17 No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law For permission requests, please go to www.copyright.com, or contact Copyright Clearance Center (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923 (telephone: 978.750.8400; fax: 978.646.8600) ATD Press is an internationally renowned source of insightful and practical information on talent development, training, and professional development ATD Press 1640 King Street Alexandria, VA 22314 USA Ordering information: Books published by ATD Press can be purchased by visiting ATD’s website at www.td.org/books or by calling 800.628.2783 or 703.683.8100 Library of Congress Control Number: 2017935217 ISBN-10: 1-56286-571- ISBN-13: 978-1-56286-571-9 e-ISBN: 978-1-56286-574-0 ATD Press Editorial Staff Director: Kristine Luecker Manager: Christian Green Community of Practice Manager, Human Capital: Ann Parker Developmental Editor: Kathryn Stafford Senior Associate Editor: Melissa Jones Text Design: Iris Sanchez Cover Design: Faceout Studio, Derek Thornton Illustrator: Francelyn Fernandez Printed by Versa Press Inc., East Peoria, IL To all the people who were ever slapped upside the head, caught unawares, tripped up, or blew it And instead of crying or hiding, they got up, started over, learned something new, or laughed You are my people We’re the ones who never get to learn lessons the easy way And that’s a good thing That means we’re improvisers Contents Preface Introduction Embracing the Unexpected Preparing Like an Improviser Playing in the Moment Thinking Upside Down Final Thoughts: Managing Change Through Improvisation Acknowledgments References About the Author Index Preface Improvisation is the bedrock of my life It affects how I behave, work, parent, communicate, and create It wove itself into my DNA because the moment I learned about improv, I realized that anything was possible And my serendipitous life path is a reflection of that improviser’s belief in every possibility I’ve lived several lives, and all of them have been in the midst of innovators Whether I was creating theater in the moment on the improvisational stage, working on the front lines of the Internet revolution, or developing scientists and engineers as a consultant, I’ve had the good fortune to watch innovation happening And what struck me, over those decades of observation and participation, was that innovators behave in special ways When I was immersed in teams of innovators, I admired their utterly natural ability to deal with dichotomy, prepare, play, and think upside down However, when I would move to a group or corporation bound up in old patterns of thought and action that quality vanished; I found the difference alarming The good news is that even those groups who were not working well together could learn They could grow, develop, and change their patterns of behavior to be more creative and innovative—and those changes came from embracing improvisational techniques I’ve worked with pharmaceutical scientists who wanted to accelerate their fuzzy front-end work on new drugs, technologists who needed to get their breakthrough idea to market, and executives who had to get their teams working and innovating together This book is the outcome of those many experiences across myriad industries and teams My company, ImprovEdge, has created training and development for Fortune 1000 employees and executives since 1998 using the principles of improvisation, paired with research in psychology, human behavior, and neuroscience Corporate leaders and teams have applied those practices to great success, becoming more flexible, creative, and innovative I first learned to improvise as an undergraduate at Yale Soon after, I trained with the Second City of Chicago, performed and started my own troupes, and had a wonderful acting career in TV, film, radio, and the stage I zigzagged at one point, taking eight years to stretch and challenge myself by working in the network engineering industry I’m not kidding! Yes, a liberal arts–educated actor can go to work in IT (And if I can that, then I’m sure you can improvise.) I helped startups go public or be acquired, and although I was taking tech classes and cramming every night, I continued improvising during the day Those techniques allowed me to be flexible, creative, collaborative, and more successful than I ever imagined possible These incredible experiences also led me to create content—from narratives of what is possible, of what works best The Yes! Deck is a toolkit I developed comprising 29 cards full of tips, ideas, and exercises for trainers and managers (you’ll see examples of these exercises at the end of many of the chapters in this book) I also wrote two books, The Improvisation Edge: Secrets to Building Trust and Radical Collaboration at Work and Be the Best Bad Presenter Ever: Break the Rules, Make Mistakes and Win Them Over, which is an award-winning book published in four languages Those books allowed me to dive deeply into team dynamics and personal development They’ve inspired thousands of people to behave differently, take risks, and throw out old conventions to emerge as more effective individuals and teams And that theme kept driving me to wonder, “What’s the next, most important application of this work?” We must innovate And I believe that the behaviors of improvisation can directly drive our ability to continue to evolve and improve There are such pressing issues of global technology, science, health, and welfare at stake as we fly into the 21st century—and with everything moving so quickly, we have to approach this with flexibility, humor, and focus We need to innovate as improvisers This book on innovation came about through my relationship with ATD, which has hosted many of my presentations on innovation and improvisation at conferences and encouraged me to share my blog posts and webcasts with its members That excitement led to this book, in which I intend to inspire you to engage in improvisational behaviors to drive innovation in your life and work So where does innovation come from? The front lines—the everyday interactions that create small “Eureka!” moments But many companies and individuals struggle with managing those early ideas For example, my company once worked with an insurance client that realized great ideas from its call centers weren’t bubbling up Many of those front-line professionals had unusual ideas about how to serve customers better and more quickly Unfortunately, whenever they tried to introduce those ideas, they received negative responses from their managers: “We’re too busy right now.” “No, we have to follow the scripts and protocol.” Or worst, “That’s above your pay grade—could you get back to work?” The alarm bell for this company really went off when one frustrated employee took her idea to a competitor It saved the competitor between two and 10 cents per call, which over thousands of calls is a significant savings The idea had been formed in my client’s call center, but because the employee received no support and didn’t feel valued or like a real member of the team, she left, taking her innovative idea with her If her manager had only improvised a bit when she introduced the idea, that story might have ended differently The innovation could have stayed in house And more important, a valuable member of the team could still be working there There are many methods being touted out there to drive innovation, so what does improv bring to the table? By changing the way we interact with our teams, so that we wrap in the simple rules and behaviors that come from the improvisational stage, we can effect incredible change and innovation in our work and lives Innovation comes from positivity, acceptance, a willingness to take risks, and the courage to apply creative ideas Those obvious behaviors that affect corporate innovation are the same that apply to improvisation We are all improvisers Although we may believe that we are set in our ways and don’t handle change well, we actually all have to improvise every day With this book, you will not only understand how improvisation works, but also be able to use its techniques, secrets, and behaviors to be more innovative in your own life and work Introduction Innovation is a learned behavior And improvisation is your guide Improvisers arrive onstage without a script with the goal of creating entire one-act plays on the fly It sounds terrifying to some people, yet improv has clear guidelines that allow troupes to be collaborative and innovative in the moment The reason an improv troupe can create scenes out of thin air is because of the foundational principle “Yes, and.” No matter what I contribute on stage, my troupe immediately does two things: agrees with me (yes) and adds to my idea (and) So if I declare, “I’m a Warrior Queen!” a fellow improviser may say, “Yes, you are my Warrior Queen, and I’m your shield bearer!” and so the scene is off You see, the yes is the acknowledgment that we agree and we’re here to play The and is the building block We can’t just simply agree, then hang our scene partner out to dry by making him come up with all the ideas We have to say and to add to it—increase the possibility, get onboard, spice it up, move forward There’s a real magic to those two simple words, and they are surprisingly revolutionary to some corporate cultures Our natural inclination is to say no to new ideas We’re actually wired for it, and our immediate skepticism acts as a sort of defense mechanism Researchers have found that in multiple cultures and languages, 50 percent of our emotion words are negative, while 30 percent are positive and 20 percent are neutral (ABC News 2005) Our overuse of negative words also affects our communication and relationships, making it difficult to build trust and work together effectively And negativity is anathema to improvisation On the improv stage, it’s called denial and it kills good improv My favorite example is the apple scene, which we use during training workshops with our corporate clients This simple scene shows corporate audiences what can happen if you deny everything onstage Here’s how it works: I ask a volunteer to join me onstage The person is usually excited, very nervous to be in front of her colleagues, and very brave, as she is usually the first volunteer I instruct her to improvise with me by opening up the scene with the simple line, “Here, I brought you an apple!” However, instead of playing along, I immediately deny: “That’s not an apple.” I’m always impressed by how creative and tenacious my volunteers can be—they describe the apple, insist that it’s a gift, try to get me to smell or taste it, and yet I just keep saying, “No It’s not No.” Sometimes after so much denial, the volunteer will finally say, “What YOU think it is?!” She is clearly frustrated and doesn’t know what to say next The audience, while pulling for her and starting to hate me, is confused and getting bored because nothing is happening in the scene After I end the scene, we discuss what happened: How did it feel to hear no so much? What was your response when you just kept getting shot down? Answers range from frustration to anger to retreat I have a sad memory of one man actually admitting, “This is what it felt like my first week on the job I haven’t contributed an idea since I just what I’m told because who wants to feel stupid or unvalued every time they try to contribute?” Yikes And that’s the rub Negativity is a serious problem for innovation, and words are powerful Once most people hear no, they are statistically less likely to contribute again I’ve had people monitor their language use and report on the number of negative versus positive words they use They’re often surprised by what they discover I had one shocked general counsel sit down with me after only half a day and say, “I need some coaching here I’ve been frustrated by the lack on involvement on my team for two years, and I just realized I haven’t said a positive sentence all morning.” The key, too, is that we may not understand how little it takes to lose a team member Again and again, we hear corporate participants report that it only takes a few instances of no for them to cease contributing Meanwhile, back to my improv partner onstage I apologize for my negativity and promise to be a better improviser This time, when she offers me an apple, I respond with something like, “Yes! It’s a gorgeous apple and I bet you picked it in your grandmother’s orchard!” It’s incredible where they go from there Volunteers who have never improvised before start adding onto the scene and it takes off in the most humorous, unexpected, and creative ways I had one scene partner (who had never improvised before) get the entire audience to sing an apple pie song and pretend to pick apples off of an imaginary orchard over their heads! This “yes, and” behavior is critical to innovative teams because it allows all ideas to be contributed And it allows people to feel heard Even if a contribution isn’t used in the end, the process of listening, agreeing to hear them, and discussing an idea is monumentally affirming The key to “yes, and” is that it encourages contribution Some managers are afraid it means they have to accept anything their team says On the contrary, “yes, and” is about saying, “Yes, I hear you And let’s discuss this idea and please continue to contribute.” Many scenes on the improv stage are dumped if they end up not being funny or working, but at least we tried them out The same thing happens in corporate teams An environment of acceptance, discussion, and addition allows ideas to be vetted, rather than trashed before even being tried This improvisational behavior is key to creating innovative environments and teams How we choose to behave can either foster innovation or shut it down There are also a lot of stereotypes and misconceptions about innovation that are getting in our way We think innovation is reliant upon huge undertakings, gigantic creative efforts, and blinding feats of change—it’s got to be big, expensive, and world-changing We believe we have to be Renaissance people who seamlessly write symphonies while penning novels and programming groundbreaking smartphone applications That’s a lot of pressure and we need to get over it We need to realize that we all have the capability to innovate And the behaviors we need can be learned By anyone Many meaningful innovations are actually a series of small steps that come from ordinary people working together in extraordinary ways When a call center pro figures out how to fix a customer’s problem in one minute rather than three, or a group of managers sees a way to improve a product and save a nickel in every transaction—that’s innovation And those little eureka moments add up to big advantages for organizations But how we make sure those small, good ideas bubble up? How individuals become more innovative and how can managers and leaders engage their teams to tease out the solutions that may be hiding in plain sight? It all has to with how we interact, how we choose to collaborate and communicate, and whether we are willing to play How we choose to behave has much more influence on innovative outcomes than a million strategic initiatives; that is because strategic initiatives only happen, and only work, when every person is working to drive that strategy The little things we every day at our desk or in our home are the tiny wheels that push big changes forward Behavior drives innovation So how we learn to think and behave differently? What model for we are going to grow, and improve So I have to grow and improve right along with it.” Go With It You have the ability to transform, change, and create in ways we can’t even predict And yes, fear, failure, uncertainty, and discomfort are part of the package But you’re an improviser You will prepare, play, and think upside down, and you won’t be alone Your troupe, which will be changing constantly, will be along for the ride So get up on your stage, look around, and improvise Acknowledgments So many people supported the creation of this book First, thanks to my wonderful family: my husband, Todd Majidzadeh (who continues to love and encourage me despite my going back for a third helping of crazy); my kids, Timothy, Kate, and Trey; my parents, David and Cathy Hough and Mary Lee and Tom Hedrick; and my many dear cousins across the country! The incredible, improvisational ImprovEdge Ensemble: Melissa Smolko (who runs this place), April Olt, Christy Fryman, Jason Sudy, Dionysia Williams, Erika Jackson, David Thompson, Brooke Cartus, Mike Everett-Lane, Jamie Pachino, Michael Shepperd, Michelle Wilson, Sonda Staley, Dan Montour, Christy Wurdack, and Randy Carr The ATD team was fantastic: Tim Ito, Ann Parker, Clara Von Ins, Kathryn Stafford (whose steady hand kept me focused), Melissa Jones, Caroline Coppel, Julia Liapidova, Fran Fernandez, and Iris Sanchez In addition, thanks to Ron Lippock who originally encouraged me to take my research and ideas and make them into a book Thanks to my clients and case study partners who were featured in the book: Ann Arvia, Michele DeStefano, Kurt Tunnell, Marty Vian, Michelle Kerr, Dan Creekmur, Terence Morley, Liz Moran, Ben Verwer, LaChandra Baker, and Alan Robinson Thanks to Julia Biesenthal of Flight Media for designing the change model My improv training, inspiration, performance, and evolution is thanks to The Purple Crayon of Yale, Eric Berg, Frances Barney, the amazing Del Close, the Second City of Chicago, The Annoyance Theater, Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB), The Groundlings, Improv Olympic (iO), Magnet, and the too-numerous-to-remember thrown together troupes, late-night improv jams, and damn funny people I got to meet References ABC News 2005 “Study: Negative Words Dominate Language.” February http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/DyeHard/story?id=460987 Anthony, S., D Duncan, and P.M.A Siren 2014 “Build an Innovation Engine in 90 Days.” Harvard Business Review, December Badal, S.B 2014 “The Business Benefits of Gender Diversity.” Gallup Business Journal, January 20 www.gallup.com/businessjournal/166220/business-benefits-gender-diversity.aspx Bernstein, E 2012 “Speaking Up Is Hard to Do: Researchers Explain Why.” Wall Street Journal, February www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204136404577207020525853492 Bloom, T 2015 “The Most Innovative Sports Tech Products from CES 2015.” SportTechie, January www.sporttechie.com/2015/01/08/the-3-most-innovative-sports-tech-productsfrom-ces-2015 Bobkoff, D 2014 “Bjarke Ingels: An Architect for a Moment or an Era?” NPR Morning Edition, January www.npr.org/2014/01/03/259117207/bjarke-ingels-an-architect-for-a-moment-oran-era Bronson, P., and A Merryman 2010 “The Creativity Crisis.” Newsweek, July 10 www.newsweek.com/creativity-crisis-74665 Brown, S 2009 Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul With C Vaughan New York: Penguin Chetty, R., and N Hendren 2015 The Impacts of Neighborhoods on Intergenerational Mobility Executive Summary April www.equality-ofopportunity.org/images/nbhds_exec_summary.pdf Dean, J 2011 “The Zeigarnik Effect.” PsyBlog www.spring.org.uk/2011/02/the-zeigarnikeffect.php DeLuca, L.S 2015 “Why This IBM Engineer Tells High School Girls That Straight A’s Don’t Matter.” Fortune, August 29 http://fortune.com/2015/08/29/lisa-seacat-deluca-advice-forfemale-engineers Dweck, C.S 2006 Mindset: The New Psychology of Success New York: Ballantine Books Emmons, G 2007 “Encouraging Dissent in Decision-Making.” Harvard Business Review, October Fairchhild, C 2015 “Why So Few Women Are CEOs.” Fortune, January 14 Glassdoor 2014 “What Job Seekers Really Think of Your Diversity Stats.” November 17 www.glassdoor.com/employers/blog/diversity Govindarajan, V 2012 “A Reverse-Innovation Playbook.” Harvard Business Review, April https://hbr.org/2012/04/a-reverse-innovation-playbook Grant, A 2016a “Can Slowing Down Help You Be More Creative?” NPR, TED Radio Hour, part August 26 www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/490624293/slowing-down? showDate=2016-08-26 Grant, A 2016b Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World New York: Viking Gray, D 2005 “Stuck?” Communication Nation, October http://communicationnation.blogspot.com/2005/10/stuck.html Griggs, B., and E Grinberg 2015 “Hedy Lamarr Gets Inventive Salute From Google Doodle.” CNN, November www.cnn.com/2015/11/09/entertainment/hedy-lamarr-google-doodlefeat Henry, Z 2016 “The Real Joy Mangano on the Biggest Challenges of Building a $3 Billion Empire.” Inc.com, January www.inc.com/zoe-henry/joy-mangano-miracle-mop-beating-the-odds.html “History of General Anesthesia.” Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_general_anesthesia Horgan, J 2014 “Tripping in LSD’s Birthplace: A Story for ‘Bicycle Day.’” Scientific American, Cross-Check blog, April 19 https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/tripping-inlsds-birthplace-a-story-for-e2809cbicycle-daye2809d Hough, K 1998 Collaborative Brainstorm Columbus, OH: ImprovEdge Hough, K 2008 The Yes! 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and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations New York: Doubleday, 2004 Trex, E 2013 “15 Companies That Originally Sold Something Else.” Mental_Floss, August 20 http://mentalfloss.com/article/22822/15-companies-originally-sold-something-else White, J 2014 “Benefits of Being Bilingual in Business.” LinkedIn Pulse, May 22 www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140522204700-68335342-benefits-of-being-bilingual-inbusiness Wilkins, M.M 2015 “Why Executives Should Talk About Racial Bias at Work.” Harvard Business Review, April 20 Woolf, S 2015 “10 Diversity Hiring Statistics That Will Make You Think.” ClearCompany Blog, July http://blog.clearcompany.com/10-diversity-hiring-statistics-that-will-make-yourethink-your-decisions Zack, D 2015 Singletasking: Get More Done One Thing at a Time San Francisco: BerrettKoehler About the Author Karen Hough is the founder and CEO of ImprovEdge She has been using improvisation as a catalyst for business training and consulting for more than 17 years A professional improviser and actor for 25 years, Karen has performed in more than 100 live productions with the Second City of Chicago, Metraform/Annoyance Theatre, the Organic Theatre, the Purple Crayon of Yale, and many others Her TV and radio credits include CBS, Miller, Earthshare, Eli Lilly, and S.C Johnson While working as a senior sales executive in the network engineering industry in New York and Chicago, Karen originated and expanded the sales and management efforts of three separate technology startups, launched partner programs, and assisted in East Coast and national expansions She founded her company, ImprovEdge, with the goal to bring the skills of improvisation—the ability to think on your feet, arrive at solutions through the side door, and communicate in ways that bring people together—to businesses to drive innovation and success In 2012, ImprovEdge won the silver International Stevie Award for Most Innovative Company of the Year Karen was recognized in 2016 as an Inspiring Woman by the WNBA’s Indiana Fever, and was also a recipient of the Athena PowerLink Award for outstanding woman-owned business and named a semifinalist in TechColumbus’ Innovation Awards 2011 for Outstanding Service Her book, The Improvisation Edge: Secrets to Building Trust and Radical Collaboration at Work (Berrett-Kohler, 2011), was a number Amazon bestseller in category and an 800CEORead Top 25 Business Book Her second book, Be the Best Bad Presenter Ever: Break the Rules, Make Mistakes, and Win Them Over (Berrett-Kohler, 2014), won the Benjamin Franklin Gold Award and has been translated into four languages She is the creator/author of the Yes! Deck, Managing Tough Conversations: The Everyday Coaching Model Karen is also a regular contributor to the Huffington Post and has been featured in Inc magazine, Investor’s Business Daily, TD magazine, Mashable.com, and BusinessInsider.com A graduate of Yale University and La Sorbonne, Paris IV, Karen is a Certified Speaking Professional and an international conference keynote speaker on topics such as negotiation, women’s issues, innovation, diversity, leadership, executive presence, managing tough conversations, and presentation skills Karen is deeply committed to volunteer activities and philanthropy Her volunteer activities include teaching improv classes for high school students in rural Kansas and confidence-building workshops for children in Chicago’s inner city She resides in Columbus with her husband and three children Index A Ad(d) Game, brainstorming and, 18–19, 28 Advocat, 69 anesthesia, innovation and, 60 Ansari, Daniel, 39 anxiety, due to criticism, 17 See also discomfort; stress Apollo 13 lunar mission, 62–63 Avon, 59 B Berkowitz, Aaron, 39 body language in brainstorming sessions, 17 in law firm case study, boundaries, benefits to creativity, 61–66 brain science, change management and, 78–81 brainstorming criticism as detrimental to, 17 embracing lull and, 19–22 ridiculous ideas and, 18–19 strengths and pitfalls of, 16–17 breathing, to control stress, 79–80 Brown, Stuart, 35–36 C Cage, John, 9, 19 call centers, power of small connections and, 77–78 Cardinal Health, in Ohio, 24–25 case studies embracing the unexpected, and law firm, 9–10 play, and Lightwell, 48–49 preparation, and medical device company, 26–30 upside down thinking, and LWOW, 67–70 change, managing of, 75–85 brain science and, 78–81 with connections and trust, 78–80 value of collaboration, 81–85 Cheshire County Correctional Facility, 56–58 Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 38 collaboration by teams during play, 40–42 strength of, 81–85 commitment, innovation and, 44–48 communication styles brainstorming case study, 27–30 negative versus positive, in case study, 9–10 connections and trust, managing change and, 78–80 ConPosium, 69–70 conscious and subconscious states, improvisation and, 37–38, 40 See also brain science, change management and constraints See boundaries, benefits to creativity convergent thinking, xvii, CPCP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine, innovation and, 43–44 creativity boundaries and, 61–66 defined, environments for, 23–26 focus and, 36–40 improvisational training of brain for, xvii–xix knowledge as barrier to, 43 places for, 48 unexpected and, 1–8 upside down thinking and, 61–64 crises See change, managing of criticism, banning from brainstorming sessions, 17 D denial See negativity DeStefano, Michele, 67–70 devil’s advocate, banning from brainstorming session, 17 discomfort diversity and, 3–4, 10–11 improvisation and, 2–3 lulls in brainstorming and, 22 see also anxiety; stress distractions, loss of focus and, 38 divergent thinking, xvii, diversity benefits to innovation, 3–4 managing change and, 77 E Edison, Thomas, 41 environments for creativity, 23–26 in prisons, 56–58 “Eureka!” moments, xi, xvi, 2–3, exercises collaborative brainstorming, 30–31 comfort zones and how we learn, 10–11 story game, 50 upside down thinking, 70–71 F Fissure Security Limited, 69 focus, importance to creativity, 36–40 Ford, Henry, 42 “fourth wall,” innovation and, 25 Fuse (innovation lab), 24–25 G Glassdoor website, Govindarajan, Vijay, “granny cloud,” 66 Grant, Adam, 20–21 Gray, David, 62 Group Genius (Sawyer), 41–42 H Hands Up, Stand Up! game, 78–79 Harman International, 7–8 Harvard Business Review, 57–58, 62 Hoffman, Albert, 60–61 Hole in the Wall Project, 65–66 Holmes, Oliver Wendell Sr., 39 Huggable Hanger, 47 I “I Have a Dream” speech, of King, 20–21 ideation, brainstorming and, 28 immigration, Advocat and, 69 ImprovEdge, x, 9, 28, 48 improvisation innovative behavior and, xiii–xviii misconception about, India, computers for children in, 65–66 Ingels, Bjarke, 19 Ingenious Designs, 47 innovation defined, 41 improvisational techniques and, xiii–xviii sources of ideas for, xi, xiv innovation lab (Fuse), 24–25 internal cohort, change management and, 84 interruptions, consequences of, 21, 38 J Jackson, Mahalia, 20–21 Japanese proverb, 44 Jobs, Steve, xviii, 41 Jung, Carl, justification, upside down thinking and, 58–61 K Kerr, Michelle, 48–49 King, Martin Luther Jr., 20–21 knowledge, as barrier to creativity, 43 “Kubla Khan” (Coleridge), 38 L law firm case study, 9–10 lightbulb, teamwork and invention of, 41 Lightwell case study, 48–49 listening See focus, importance to creativity LSD, 60–61 luck, defined, 26 lulls, in brainstorming sessions, 19–22 LWOW (Law Without Walls), in upside down case study, 67–70 M Managing Tough Conversations workshop, 83–85 Mangano, Joy, 46–47 Martinez, Amanda Rose, 39 McConnell, David H., 59 medical device company, preparation case study, 26–30 Miracle Mop, 46–47 mistakes, embracing the unexpected and, 2–3 Mitra, Sugata, 65–66 multitasking, as enemy of focus, 38–39 N negativity in communication, case study of responses to, 9–10 as problem for innovation, xiii–xiv New Hampshire Department of Corrections, 56–58 nonexperts, value to teams, 42–44 O observations, managing change and, 80 “oops” moment, embracing the unexpected and, 2–3, open-ended questions brainstorming and, 28 managing change and, 80–81 Originals/outliers, 20, 64–65 P pain management, innovation and, 60 Paliwal, Dinesh C., 7–8 Pass the Pen game, 59–60 Pearson, Christine, 57–58 Pentland, Alex, 77–78 personal connections, benefits of, 77–78 Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 17 play, 35–50 commitment and, 44–48 focus and, 36–40 Lightwell case study, 48–49 story game exercise, 50 teamwork and, 40–42 value of, 35–36 value of nonexperts to, 42–44 Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul (Brown), 35–36 Porath, Christine, 57–58 positivity, innovation and, xi, xiv–xv, 6, 10, 68 power plant ski slope idea, 19 practice, preparation and, 26 PREcrastinators, 20 preparation, 15–31 brainstorming and, 16–22 collaborative brainstorming exercise, 30–31 environment for creativity and, 23–26 medical device case study, 26–30 practice and, 26 procrastination, outliers and innovation and, 20 psychedelic drug, innovation and, 60–61 Q questions, asking when managing change, 80–81 R racial diversity, team performance and, reflections, brainstorming and, 28–29 reverse-innovation, 7–9 Rice University, 43–44 Richardson, Adam, 62 ridiculous ideas, in brainstorming sessions, 18–19 Rock, David, 78 S Saras (teams), 7–8 Sawyer, Keith, 41–42 Schwartz, Jeffrey, 78 Seed magazine, 39 Singletasking (Zack), 38 Social Physics (Pentland), 77–78 status quo, challenging of See upside down thinking story game exercise, 50 stress controlling with breathing, 79–80 as enemy of focus, 39 see also anxiety; discomfort Surowiecki, James, 43 suspension of disbelief, play and, 44–45 Suzuki, Shunryu, 43 T T.A.G (acronym game) exercise, 70–71 teamwork, value of, 40–42 “telling,” in improv game, 82 tension, creativity and innovation and, 1–8 “third ideas,” 55 Time Dash game, 81–82 Tomlin, Lily, 61 Torrance, E Paul, trickle-up (reverse) innovation, 7–9 trust, managing change and, 78–80 Tushman, Michael, 75–76 U Ultimate Challenge, 63–64 unexpected, embracing of, 1–11 diversity and, 3–4 how we learn exercise, 10–11 law firm case study, 9–10 mistakes and, 2–3 tension and creativity, 1–8 up-front work See preparation upside down thinking, 55–71 challenge to status quo and, 56–58 computers in India as example of, 64–66 creative constraints and, 61–64 justification and, 58–61 Law without Walls case study, 67–70 T.A.G exercise, 70–71 V vacations, creativity and, 48 Van Wickler, Rick, 56–58 Virginia Tech study, 17 W Watts, Alan W., 36 Wells, Horace, 60 WhiteHatters, 69 “Why not?” mantra, 49 Winfrey, Oprah, 47 Wisdom of Crowds, The (Surowiecki), 43 Wozniak, Steve, 41 Wrigley, William Jr., 60 Y “Yes, and” principle brainstorming and, 18, 19, 28–29 embracing the unexpected and, 1, 6, 8, 10 innovation teams and, xv power of, xiii–xiv upside down thinking and, 68 Yes! Deck toolkit, x Z Zack, Devora, 38 Zeigarnik, Bluma, 21 Zuckerberg, Mark, 47 ... all innovated themselves So can you About This Book Go With It: Embrace the Unexpected to Drive Change will show you the methods, mindsets, and behaviors that drive improvisers These techniques... crossed their arms Although the attorneys were there to uncover information, they brought an internal and verbal critic with them As the clients disclosed details about their problem, the attorneys... manager The key is to understand the nature of effective brainstorming You must ban the devil’s advocate, go for the ridiculous, and embrace the lull Ban the Devil’s Advocate The first issue with